The World Ends in Ice
by Eme
Summary: Does the heart or the head rule the soul? At the forefront of the invasion of the Moon Kingdom, one woman saw the end. See how the life of Sailor Mercury, gaurdian of the Moon Princess Serenity, came to an end.


**Disclaimer:** Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and associated companies, and is being used with out permission for entertainment only. I.e. I don't own the anything don't sue me.

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This little fic was done for K. Wyse's wonderful Ficathon, we were assigned couples and naturally I would get the two that plague me the most.

For all the wonderful fics that were created in this event go to www(dot)geocities(dot)com/wysek/ficathon-2006(dot)htm

Kudos must go to Wyse for getting me off my duff to write, and to Wil-chan for being very supportive and listening to my whining without even knowing what I was writing. Now on with the fic!

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**The World Ends in Ice  
**Author: Eme aka Branwen 

13 hours 27 minutes, since Beryl's Army began invasion of the Moon Kingdom.

In the tomb like stillness of the Moon Palace's Archives the gentle and constant tapping of typing could be heard.  
Stationed in front of a hologram screen in the center of the room, a reserved statue of grace and concentration sat.  
By her appearance you would not have guessed that a war raged on the battlements of the alabaster palace.

The Senshi of Wisdom sat straight and proper, her uniform perfectly white and pressed, her ankles crossed demurely.

It seemed the most natural thing in the word for her to be there, typing away.  
Her hand typed deftly at the holographic board with ferocity and force it was true, but in those brief moments of time when her hands stilled…

They shook with emotion.

Her eyes where intent on the screen, this too, was true, but looking into the depths of blue she was shattered with a fatigue that went deeper than physical tiredness to the state of her soul.

13 hours: 35 minutes, and she was no closer to her goal.

She had two tasks thrown upon her with forceful command by Sailor Venus.

One: What was this strange energy that was causing the Lunarian defensive to fail against Beryl?  
Two: Was there a way to stop her?

She picked through the data, the scans, calculated the mass and energy. With a robotic perfection she went through the probabilities, the variables, the constants. All to find the answer to two questions.

In the minutes that passed by her fine façade of ice was melting away. There beneath the surface of equations and strategies was a pool of questions with no answers.

2 days, 13 hours: 43 minutes, since they had word of the Shitennou's betrayal.

The message had come at dinner, delivered quite calmly to the Queen Selenity. Her eyes had grown wide and in a moment of uncharacteristic clumsiness her silver spoon clattered to the table spilling red bisque across the white linen.

The universe had shifted in that moment.

2 days: 13 hours: 43 minutes: since Metis, Princess of Mercury's heart had frozen.

She remembered each and everyone's reaction to the news. It was engraved into her razor sharp mind, she had watched it all unfolded with a detached numbness that came with years of practice.

Sweet Serenity held onto an unbelieving Endymion, crying crystalline tears.  
Venus leaned back into a pillar shocked and shaking, desperately clutching her chest to hang on to her composure.  
Jupiter had gone deathly still, she turned from them all electricity sparking from her fists. As she left there was the sound of thunder and a howl of rage.  
Mars collapsed on the floor in a heap of red and ebony, shaking her head wildly, tears streaming down her face. On her lips the cries of lover's denial.

And for herself…she faded away. Drifting like an iceberg on a traitorous sea she quietly walked to her room and locked it securely. It was only then, deep in her inner sanctum she would allow herself to cry the river that threatened to consume.

The computer let out an agitated beep.

Her hand was heavy and unmoving on the space bar.

She allowed herself a little sigh of grief, and composure.  
There were too many questions without answers, and too many people demanding she reveal them all.

How did Beryl manage to gain such power and seemingly over night?  
Did the people of Earth really hate them or were they being manipulated by the Dark energy?  
If she had been more open in her love for him would he be here now?  
Where was he now?  
How could she have let their last meeting end the way it had?

Another argument, another petty fight over what was proper behavior in public and around friends.

She just couldn't bring herself to kiss him in front of people even if it was their close friends. It went against her breeding, against everything that had been beaten into her as a Princess of Mercury.

"Acts of love or lust in public bespoke of loose women and loose morals."  
How many times had she heard that in her life?

And yet when he looked at her with those piercing green eyes so keen on her, she wanted to show him she loved him. She wanted to throw herself in his arms and cover every inch of him in kisses, but…she just couldn't.

She couldn't be that girl.

Oh how she envied Venus and Mars for their rules-be-damned behavior when it came to their hearts, or even Serenity's sweet juxtapositions of impropriety...

She had to focus.

13 hours: 55 minutes, the computer hummed as it processed.

Mercury's hands came to a stand still when the screen began revealing the calculations. The numbers and equations scrolled across the screen at a break neck pace her eyes following it with ease.

Suddenly the answer was there.  
She gasped, a loud clattering scrape echoed off the ancient walls.

They were all doomed.

The first question that was Mercury's mission remained unknown, where Beryl was getting her power no longer mattered.  
It was enough power to completely over take the entire Moon Kingdom in…

16 hours: 36 minutes, not only would the Moon be conquered but also the entire Silver Millennium would end.

As the blue haired woman stared at the screen processing the information, computing mentally the implications, the tingling sensation of her Link with the Senshi came to the forefront of her shell-shocked mind.

The telepathy was usually effortless, but now it buzzed with scattered interference making her wince in pain. She knew Venus was trying to speak to her, but what she was saying was not getting through. Mercury sat to attention and tried to clear her mind.

She could only clearly receive six words but the message was enough.

_Mercury… Beryl… breached Palace…**get out**_

The worse had come to be.

The link would be useless in trying to find the Princess or Venus.

With sleek determination she programmed the computer to find energy sources, specifically Princess Serenity's. Once she had Serenity's location is was only the matter of getting to her.  
The pounding sounds of boots in the outer hallways said that wouldn't be so easy.

14 hours, since the first attack on the Moon. Mercury's new mission:

Find Serenity and guard her till death.

The footsteps in the hallways grew louder; she'd only have a good 2 minutes till they were upon her.  
The computer would take at least 10 to locate Serenity.

She'd have to fight them off.

With a gentle wave of her hand the room filled with a thick cold fog, and Sailor Mercury disappeared into the recesses of the cavernous room letting the computer work on it's own accord.  
The room appeared empty and otherworldly to the bumbling pawns of scouting troops sent in first to die in whatever legendary tricks and traps the Lunarians had guarding their beloved palace.

The quick and cleanly placed hit was not necessarily a killing blow, but the icy surge that the staff emitted made it so.

Another line, this one with a youma in the midst of Terrain soldiers.  
Through her visor the Mercurian senshi could trace their movements, and as a phantom figure in the fog she lured them all closer.

Two more steps forward…

The hum of a Lunarian laser accompanied the stench of seared flesh; the Archives security system had been set off.  
Thundering footsteps echoed down the stoic hallways promising a battle of wits and will for whom would leave alive.

17 dead and counting, 3 minutes until the computer could locate Serenity.

14 hours: 7 minutes, since this nightmare started.

It happened in a moment, the briefest miniscule measurement of time.

She had been so focused on luring her next victim unawares into one of the many traps set in motion in this building she had come to know so well and the next…

She was completely overwhelmed by his presence. Like a warm wind that blew seductively on her neck whispering cruel intimate cruses to her frozen heart, he was there. His familiar and foreign laugh cut through her protective fog with an edge it never had before.

The girl that turned looking past the blue hue of her visor was not Sailor Mercury, it was an innocent and wounded girl who could not for all her wisdom comprehend the man who captivate her entire being in that moment.

She could have lied to herself and said that he looked nothing like the man she had given herself so completely to not but a few days ago.

He had the same wheat spun hair, done in its same tied back fashion. The same stance of pride and dignity. His lips still so deliciously kissable.

His uniform may have changed, the look in his eye no longer mirthfully and mischievous, the smirk no longer understanding.  
But somewhere, somehow she knew it was still her Zoisite. Trapped in the darkness but not destroyed.

The world became immersed in chaotic clarity; the blue-eyed Senshi's senses suddenly became aware. Aware of everything…  
She could hear the shallow breath of the Terrain soldiers dieing on the marble floors doubt and fear ruling their confused hearts. The yelling and desperate voices of Lunarian troops trying to retreat down the hall. Zoisite's predatorily grin as he slinked through her dense fog like a well experienced leopard.

For a brief moment her mind was gripped with indecision, and she found herself luring him away from the traps scatter so precariously around the room. With every inch he got closer the sweat rolled with more intensity from her pale brow.

He taunted her, the shadow enigma he hunted. And like a poisonous barb each of his words stung her slowly breaking her concentration.  
Till she could ignore his words and presence no longer.

"**TRAITOR!**" The word was ripped from her lips without apology, her throat raw and cold with emotion.

The lithe Dark General spun trying in vain to discern the origin of the accusation, but it rung off the walls, ricocheting in every direction.

"So the ghost speaks." Piercing sage eyes peered into the gray abyss of the room, searching.

" Tell me, Ghost." He spat.

"How did I betray you? Have I raped your motherland? Does it anger you that for once your pathetic silvery kingdom thinly veiled goodness has fallen to the barbarians? Tell me, how you suffer, little Ghost."

Such spite, such malice from her former lovers lips. It threatened to spill over, her soul wished to crush him under the weight of his betrayal.  
She bit her tongue, an act to center her mind.

58 seconds till the computer located Serenity.

She would need to draw him to one of the far corners of the room, allowing herself time to attempt to transmitted the location through the Link, and then slip out unnoticed. It was a good plan. A simple plan, as all good plans are.

Silent approach through the mist, a blast of burning ice that he would easily dodge and seek the origins. A swift retreat to the back alcove of the Archives, all the while one eye on the corner of her screen waiting for a single location.

The map uploaded before her eyes. The perfectly symmetrical design of the crescent shaped palace. Heading towards the center, the temple of Selene, was the pure white dot of Serenity. She cauterized the image to her photographic memory, and with a deep breath tried to clear her mind.

The Link was torrents of static and dark energy, the feel of it made the petite woman want to retch and break her connection. She calmed her breathing, her soul reaching out to her sister Senshi. Mercury could barely feel their presence but with as much power as she could muster she sent the location out, praying that Hermes's wings would guide it safely to the minds of her comrades.

Opening her eyes she leaned heavily against the cold marble wall, never before had it taken so much to transmit so little.  
Through weary but alert eyes she scanned the room and her pulse raced at what she saw.

A troop of Lunarian soldiers had entered the Archives and where engaging Zoisite in combat.

She approached quickly, thickening the mist to aid her allies in battle. Yet her blood still pulsed at an unusual rate.  
It was the trajectory of the cruelly handsome blonde man's foot that kept the Senshi's heart pounding.  
With wide eyes of deep blue she watched his boot in slow motion as it landed unknowingly on trigger hidden so expertly by her own hand.

Her mind went blank, an occurrence thought impossible by many.

In that moment of sweet nothingness she did something she had always longed to do.  
And without a thought of the consequence the quiet law abiding woman flung herself in the arms of the man she loved, and into death.

Confusion took over the face of Dark General Zoisite as he held dieing Senshi in his arms.  
From her abdomen a fatal wound from a Lunarian laser, marring her perfectly white uniform, with angry gore.

With a rage he could scarce contain and little understood he turned a dark hand to the handful of Lunarian soldiers and with a single blast of dark energy mixed with ferocious wind, he obliterated them in his fury.

He could not rationalize what possessed him to lay the blue Senshi so gently on the marble floor.  
Nor could he explain her idiotic suicide.

The tainted part of him said she was weak and knew there was no use in fighting the inevitable end of cursed Moon people.  
But a part he could not recognize told him that was never true… She was not weak.  
He knelt there torn into inaction.

He should torture this woman, this petite pampered child of the Moon.  
But as he looked in her eyes endless blue tears slowly falling, her life leaving her as the blood seeped around her…

A pool of crimson framing a fallen nymph of pale blue.

Something that was him and yet not him commanded he caress her cheek.

As he stood towering over her, the shine of blue from her sapphire tiara caught his eye.  
With more softness than he should have allowed, he removed it from her brow; the brilliant sapphire sparkled with mystery and promise.  
He slipped the delicate wreath of gold on his belt, a trophy over the Moon Kingdom's Legendary Senshi.  
A reminder of the angel faced girl, dead at his feet.

With a violent shake of his head he turned on his heel, there was work to be done and Lunarians to kill.

Mercurian blood continued to spread across Lunarian floors.  
As the red grew the floor and all it touched froze.  
The fog rolled out from the Archives, now a frozen tomb of the fallen Senshi of Wisdom, covering all it came across in icy white abyss.

14 hours: 33 minutes: Since Beryl's Army invaded the Moon Kingdom…

Metis the last of the Royal house of Mercury fell to her own heart and brought winter to the Moon.

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Oh thank god! pounds head against the keyboard 

Seriously that was the most painful experience in writing I have ever done. Pulling teeth that was. A-hem. But I hope in the end I got a decent Mercury out there for you all to enjoy.

In any event I have finished it and I am proud of that. It still needs editing and fine-tuning however I am proud to enter it in 2006 Ficathon. (On time might I add lol)

This piece is meant to be in the same timeline/story series of a little diddy I did called Valkyrie Storm but has now been re-named **The World Ends in a Storm. **

And now that this one is finally out of the way I can write the other two Senshi death scenes that have been plaguing my mind and actually finish a series of one-shots shock of shocks Which I will put altogether when it's done.

So feed back and critics are more than welcome, are encouraged (Especially as this is my first ever Mercury piece)

Drop me a line at:

renegadeartist (at) sbcglobal (dot) net


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